t h e MILITANTPUBLISHED WEEKLY IN THE INTERESTS OF THE W O RKING PEOPLE__________

Vol. XX — No. 25 NEW YORK. N. V., MONDAY, JUNE 18, 1956 PRICE: 10 Cenl.

THIRD ANNIVERSARY E. GERMANY UPRISING

(See Page 3 )

NAA CP Political Policies in Light Of Recent Events

By George Lavan

Communist Party Is RockedBy Khrushchev Confessions---------------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- — $ -----------------------------------------

I t is two years since the Supreme Court handed down its decision against school segregation. Instead of picking up speed and scope the actual desegregation of Jim Crowschools has run into a roadblock. In bhe border regions desegrega­tion has slowed down and in the Deep South i t never even began.

The Supreme Court decision was the greatest legal victory ever Won by the National Asso­ciation fo r the Advancement of Colored People. A t the same time i t has demonstrated the inade­quacy of tlie NAAOP’s traditional mdtfhods of struggle against Jim Crow. These methods are law­suits and lobbying. The situation tha t now confronts the Negro people w ill not yield to either method. The NAACP is thus le ft without any means of bringing to realization in fact what i t won in words in the courtroom.

Consider the lawsuit situation. The racist governors, legislatures and school boards of the South have already passed, or have up their Sleeves, 101 legal gimmicks to prevent integration. The moists boast that they can prevent desegregation by litigation for 100 years. And the observer is compelled to admit they can — i f the fight is confined to the courtrooms.

RACIST COUNTER­OFFENSIVE

court into a toothless implementa­tion decisoin and has half-con­vinced the rest of the country that school desegregation is im ­passible in the South. A;t the same time the racists have strengthened their already power­ful grip on Congress and their influence in both the Democratic and Republican parties.

The NAACP’s lobbying efforts not only have borne no fru it but have been dismissed more con­temptuously by the politicians th!is year than ever before.

The Montgomery boycott shows that the Negro people themselves found the lawsuit-lobbying pro­gram of the NA.A.CP inadequate. They took the path of mass action. Its effectiveness is w it­nessed not only by tlhe empty buses but by the inability of the White Citizens Council officials of Montgomery to smash the movement and by the inspiring effect i t has had upon the Negro people and their white allies throughout the country.

The heroic example of Mont­gomery unavoidably poses fo r the NAACP convention the question of adopting the powerful weapon of mass action.

The legal preparation of the white-supremacists is but one aspect of the counter-offensive they launched following the Supreme Court decision. They have frightened into silence So'.'ft'h&ro labor, ■ liberals and ‘‘moderates” and now claim to speak as the voice of the “united'’ South.

This voice intimidated the high

POLITICAL ROAD BLOCKBut mass action, effective as

i t is, w ill not solve the great question facing the Negro people unless i t is joined to a broad overall program. And that pro­gram must deal with the key question — how to break the poli­tical roadblock preventing. dese-

(Continued on page 41

Brooklyn Symposium To Discuss Elections

NEW YORK — Four d istinct points of view on “ W orking Class Policy in the 1956 Elections” w ill be discussed at a symposium next Sunday sponsored by theBrooklyn Compass Club. The speakers w ill be Farrell Dobbs, Socialist Workers Party presi­dential candidate, W. E. B. Du- Rois, noted scholar and Progres­sive Party candidate for U.S. Senator in 1950, David Goldway, executive secretary o f the Jeffer­son School, and Clifford T. Mc- Avoy, former American Labor Party candidate for Governor and Mayor of New York.

A lively debat e is assured since the speakers w ill present con­flic ting policies' in the 1956 elec­tions.

FOR SOCIALIST AMERICA'Dobbs stand's opposed to class

collaboration. The main plank in his election platform is further­ance of the class struggle of bhe workers through independent political action. He advocates formation of a Labor Party, regarding this as a step toward the establishment of socialism in America.

Dobbs says his candidacy gives all those who believe in socialism a chance to vote in line with their principles. It gives all those who belive in independent labor political action a chance to register their desire for an inde­pendent party of Labor, and all those who oppose the present b i­partisan policies of the Demo­crats and Republicans a chance to oppose this political monopoly.

DuBois advocates a boycott of the 1-956 presidential election. In an article in the March 26 Na­tional Guardian, after rejecting both the Democrats- and Repub­licans as pro-war and pro-Jim Crow, he said: “ The result of the election I cannot change, but I can at le>ast refuse to condone it. I can stay at home and let fools traipse to the polls. I call this sfftdown strike the only recourse of honest men today so fa r as the presidency' is concerned."

THE CP LINEGoldway, as an official of th '

Jefferson School, w ill presumiabl; favor the electoral policy of th* Communist Party. That policy is that the Republicans must be

FARRELL DOBBS

defeated at all costs, and the only practical way to do this is to vote fo r . the Democratic Party, even though on all key issues their policies are identical with the Republicans. This w ill prob­ably be the only out-and-out class collaborationist viewpoint at the Sunday symposium.

McAvoy, a leading non-Stalinist in Progressive party circles took his public stand against the Stalinist policy of supporting the Democrats in a letter published in the Oct. 10. 1955 National Guardian. He said: “ Let us have an end now to coalition w ith advocates of cold war, enemies of labor and the Bill of Rights, and friends of Jim Crow.” He has not yeit publicly stated bis alternative.

The appearance of Dobbs and Goldway w ill mark the first time in history in the New York area that prominent Trotskyist and Stalinist spokesmen shared the same platform.

The symposium w ill be held Sunday, June 24 at 8 P. M. at the Sunrise Manor, 1638 Pitkin Manor, Brooklyn.

High Court lim its Firing Of "Risks”

The U.S. Supreme Court on June 11 knocked another chip o ff the police-state edifice built up during the administrations of Democrat Truman and Repub­lican Eisenhower. This was done in a six-three decision declaring the procedures of the “ loyalty” purge illegal when used against government workers in '’non- sensitive’’ jobs.

The decision is important in that over half» of the “ security risk” firings to date have been of employes in jobs without the remotest connection w ith secur­ity, classified documents or poli-

■cy making. These witch-hunt victims can now bring lawsuits to regain their jobs and back pay.HIKING ’’SUBVERSIVE”

The ruling dame in the case of Kendrick M. Oole. a former employe of the Federal Food and Drug Administration, fired because of alleged association with Nature Friends of Amer­ica. This organization, which went iri fo r hiking and outdoor life, is on the Attorney General’s “subversive” list. Cole, a vet­eran, appealed his fir in g to the Civil Service Commission.'

Under the ■ Veterans- Prefer­ence Act, o i: 194.4-'he was entitled to such an appeal. However, the government ruled that Eisen­hower’s “ loyalty” purge execu­tive order, issued in accordance with a 1950 witch-hunt law, su­perseded Cole’s rights under the Veterans Preference Act,

It is possibly significant that on April 20 of this year the U.S. Court of Appeals in Wash­ington, D.C.; ruled that the gov­ernment’s firing of James Kutch- er, the legless veteran, from a job in the Veterans Administra­tion, because of admitted mem­bership in the Socialist Work­ers Party, also violated the Vet­erans Preference Act.PROCEDURES AFFECTED

The June 11 Supreme Court ruling does not outlaw the “ loy­a lty” purge, -nor does i t even say that ■ government, workers in "non-sensitive” ' - jobs cannot be fired fo r their political be­liefs or associations. I t merely declares that the procedures used violate by their a rb itra ri­ness civil service laws which still apply in “ non-sensitive” job cate­gories.

I t remains to be seen i f the administration w ill honestly com­ply with the decision, or, as in the case of maritime screening, simply redraft its regulations to continue its "loyalty” purge but using different words.

Jobless Lines in D e tro it

A common sight in the auto capital, Detroit, is the long lines of jobless outside unemployment compensation offices (top). Bottom picture shows unemployed auto workers filing applications for state unemployment compensation. Michigan's unemployed topped 220,000 at end of May. Over 90 per cent of auto jobless are ineligible for supplementary unemployment payments from com­panies because of loopholes in United Auto Workers contracts.

REPORT REVOLTS IN SOVIET PRISON CAMPS FOLLOWING 20TN CONGRESS

By Fred HartNew strikes and demonstrations

have occurred in the slave labor camps of the Soviet Union. Latest details come from a ref­ugee, now in Israel, who was recently a prisoner in a Siberian camp some 600 miles from Tomsk.

According to U.S. News and World Report (June 8) when news of the new anti-Stalin line of the 20th Congress reached this camp, the prisoners staged great demonstrations. Their slogan was: release of “ victims of Stal­in’s repression.” As the strike snowballed they seized the camp commander and marched on two other camps to bring them out on strike. Troops were used to quell the demonstrators and about 200 strikers were killed,

the refugee reports.The concentration camps with

their estimated 15 million pris­oners are one of the politically most explosive elements in the USSR. In August 1953 a great general strike, triggered by the news of the East German up­rising, broke out in the Arctic Circle camps around Vorkuta. For a month 25,000 prisoners held the whole Stalinist regime at hay. Sympathy fo r the strik­ers was expressed by Red Army soldiers and camp guards. Sim­ilar strikes have since taken place in other camps in the USSR all the way across the continent to the Pacific Ocean.

The most active organizers of the Vorkuta strikes were im­prisoned members of the ITL, an underground youth group, whose initials stand for Rus­

sian . words meaning "True Works of Lenin.” The program of this organization is hnti-capi- talist and anti-Stalinist and ap­parently very close to Trotsky­ism. Another important group in organizing the concentration camp strikes was a pacifist-so­cialist group known by the nick­name "Monashki,’’ i.e. " little monks.”

TROTSKYISTS STILL HELD In April the Kremlin announced

that in 18 months i t would re­vamp the system of. concentra­tion camps in remote parts of Siberia and Central Asia. More­over, there have, already been some prisoners released. None of these, however, are known to include Trotskyists imprisoned since the ea rly1930 ’s, o f the Leninist or pacifist youth groups.

SWP to Fight Ballot Ban ThreatDETROIT — For the third time

in four years, the right of the So­cialist Workers Party to be on the Michigan ballot, is under attack.

The danger exisits that, after complying w ith the legal require­ments. i t may be barred from the ballot, this year by administrative decision. A ruling is now being weighed by Secretary o f State Hare, a liberal Democrat elected with labor’s support.

In 1952, when the Michigan 'legislature adopted the notorious Trucks Act, the Attorney General (a Republican) roiled that bhe act applied to the SWP and sum­marily ordered that it be denied a place on the ballot, even though i t had already submitted the required number of nominating petitions.

1952 COURT FIGHTThe SWP and its presidential

candidate. Farrell Dobbs, then had to go to court to regain their place on the 1952 ballot. I t was also necessary to continue litiga­tion until February, 1954, before the Attorney General finally stip­ulated in court that he had no case against the SWP and agreed to quit try ing to apply bhe Trucks

Act- against jt> (Just a few weeks ago the state supreme count finally ruled that the Tracks Act is unconstitutional, a® the SWP had contended all along.)

The second attempt came in 1955, when a bill was introduced in Lansing to amend the election law so that minority parties would have to get 7Vi times as many nominating petitions as previously. This move was finally dropped under the pressure of public opinion, led by the labor movement, after a public hearing in March, 1955.

The background of the third and present threat to the SWP’r ballot rights is as follows:

On April 5, the SWP filed over 12.000 signatures for a place on the 1956 ballot. The deadline for filing was May 5, but the peti­tions were submitted early in ac­cord with a practice that has be­come customary: Petitions areturned in early so that i f some of them are held to be faulty the submitting party can have time to replace them.

This year, however, the odffjce of the state director of elections failed, despite many requests and reminders, to inform the SWP

that there was any complain' about its petitions until three days before the deadline. Even on such short notice, the SWP turned in another 2,400 signature: on May 5. Had it'been given the customary notice, i t wo Id easily have turned in two or three time that many supplementary signa­tures.

No decision has been made yet in Lansing. But the press reports that the authorities, * although they have not finished their check of the petitions, are considering barring the Socialist Workers Party and Socialist Labor Party on the alleged ground that their petitions are faulty or inadequate.

I f this happens, thousands of Michigan voters would be dis­franchised as effectively as Ne­groes are barred from the ballot in the South.- It would mean that working class parties traditionally on the ballot here can be barred through administrative action after two attempts to bar them bv law had failed.

W ILL COS’ DUCT CAMPAIGNThe present Attorney General

(a Democrat) has ruled that, the decision affecting m inority par­

ties must be made by the Sec­retary of State. For the first time in several decades this port is now held by a Democrat, and a liberal Democrat at that. This is also the first time in many year that m inority party petition’ have encountered any challenge.

While awaiting the Secretary of State’s decision, the SWP ha. already decided that i t w ill ' : necessary seek court action to keep its place on the ballot, and that, i f all else fails, i t w ill s til’ conduct a vigorous write-in cam­paign on a revolutionary social is. platform this year.

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send your name and address to The M ilitant, 116 University Place, New York 3, N. Y. En­close 83 for one year’s sub­scription or SI-50 for 6 months.

And while you’re about it, why not take out a subscrip­tion for a friend ? Help spread the truth by widening the cir­culation of America’s leading socialist weekly.

Leadership’s Attempt To Divert 'Stalin Cult’ Discussion Blown Up

By Daniel RobertsReaction of the U.S. S talin ist leaders to the Khrush­

chev revelations about Stalin has been made up of the follow ing ingredients: ^

(1) High indignation over Stalin’s <mimes. (2) Breast-beat­ing, about their past cover-up fo r the sinister dictator. (The June 8 Daily Worker pleads i t was “wholly ignorant that th e s e crimes had been committed,” but engages in self - criticism fo r haying denounced as “ enemies- of the working class” those “ who told tihe truth about them.") (3)Pointing to their record of par­ticipation in the class struggle in the U.S. in extenuation.(4) Assurance that ‘‘gigantic transformations” have already taken place and a call for yet more changes in the Soviet Union.(5) A-new call fo r a. regroup- ment of radicals in the U.S. leading to the building of a mass party of socialism.

The U.S. CP leaders have moved far away from their in itia l formulas “ downgrading" Stalin.A t that time Foster and other >aitty spokesmen pleaded fo r a “balanced” judgment of Stalin’s historical role, “ in historical per­spective we must assess Sitalin as one who made important con­tributions to the building of So­cialism in the USSR, but who ieparted from certain important;Leninist concepts in l a t e r rears. . .” Such is the evaluation given by Max Weiss, National B duration Director of the CP. a'‘he party's national committer meeting, April 284May 1. Hie report, printed as a pamphlet ipoeared at the same time as the publication of the Khrushchev -•peeah.

RAPID SHIFTThe Stalinists are now keeping

awfully quiiet about Stalin’s alleged “ important contributions.”•Khrushchev’s revelations le ft n room for them any more. Instead 'he ,T. me 6 Daily Worker speak

Myra Weiss Talks On Soviet EventsMyra Tanner Weiss, Social­

ist Workers Party candidate fo r, vice-president, now on a coast-to-coast campaign tour, is addressing public meetings on the recent sensational So­viet developments.

The meetings provide the op­portunity to hear and discuss a Trotskyist analysis .o f the recently published Khrushchev speech to the 20th Congress of the Soviet Communist Party. Watch The Militant for the date when she w ill be in your city. She w ill next speak in Cleveland, Saturday, June 23, at. 8 P. M., at 10609 Superior Avenue. The occasion is an Ohio Election Rally.

editorially about “ a monstrous perversion of socialist principles u-ndor Stalin’s brutal rule." So rapidly .have the U.S* CP chiefs shifted their expression® and terminology inside a few brief days.

Just the same, the U.S. CP leaders are no more inclined than two months ago to answer burn­ing questions posed by their own members at the very start of the discussion about the Stalin cult. The members asked: “ What were Khrushchev and his associates doing while Stalin was commit-, ting his crimes? Why did the American -CP leaders shield these crimes? What guarantees are there -that the crimes won’t be repeated?"

These questions lead straight to a fundamental examination of Stalinism — its basic political program and its social origin.

But. this examination is just (Continued on page 4)

Ask Khrushchev Reply To Widow of TrotskyJohn Gates Editor Daily Worker

We cah upon you to jo in us in demanding tha t the government of the Soviet. Union reply to the message of Natalia Trotsky, sent Feb. 20, requesting that the namesof her late husband Leon Trotsky T> -------------------------and her son Sedov be cleared b> reviewing the slanders and. frame ups perpetrated against them in the Moscow trials of the Thirties. Her request that she receive in­formation about the fate of her youngest son. Serge Sedov, who was last reported to be in Stalin’* orison camps, also deserve- vigorous support.

Justice demanded that Natali; Trotsky’s request should bav< been granted forthwith. Instead months of rude and disloyo bureaucratic silence bas beer maintained. •

FRAME-UP VICTIMSKhrushchev's speech to th-

closed session o-f the •20-th Cor grass establishes once and for a’ hat Trotsky, Sedov and all th

principal defendants in the Mos cow Trials were victims of mor strous frame-ups based on cor ies-s'ons extorted, through torture

In'the light of these admission how can the refusal to prompt 1 and honestly reply to Nlat-alr Trotsky’s request, be supported

Trotsky’s name has been drag ged in the mud by the Stalin« movement for decades. His pc litical co-workers and comrade were systematically villified an murdered. The frame-up cam paign against Trotsky and Tre> syism was international in scope

May we remand you that yo 51- paper and the Communist Party of the U.S. vigorously participat­ed in this campaign.

The Daily Worker has now editorially declared that its past attitude was “blind and uncritical.” We also note that the Daily Worker o-f April 2 asserted the ■‘righ t to demand that the in­vestigations in Hungary [about bhe Rajk frame-up] and the Soviet Union shall be fu ll and ’omiplete and shall bring to hook .-hose responsible for injustice, no matter how high their position was or is.”

These demands of the Daily Worker on the Soviet Government are fu lly justified. The fact that they have been greeted with dead, silence, as Natalia Trotsky's ■«quest was received, should not -esuilt in discouragement of such efforts. For 30 years we Trot­skyists have fought fo r the truth vbout Stalin’s crimes. Now, after ‘hree decades, wen Khrushchev is leing forced to admit the truth under the pressure o f the Soviet corking class resurgence.

We think i t is your duty to upport Natalia Trotsky's request

for justice and we urge you to do so without delay.

Marry WeissEditor, The M ilitant

T H E M I L I T A N T Monday, June 18, 1956>— Page T iro

STALINISM AND BOLSHEVISM - By Leon Trotsky

Is Leninism Responsible for Stalin Cult?[The revelations coming out of Moscow constitute a s trik in g^-

conflrmation o f the brilliant analysis contained in the writings of Leon Trotsky on the origin, development and inevitable downfall of the Stalinist bureaucracy. The publication of the secret Khrush­chev speech detailing the horrible crimes of the Stalinist bureaucracy has unleashed a veritable flood of hindsight wisdom from the pens of capitalist pundits, Social Democratic camp-followers of the American State Department and assorted political wiseacres, all harping on the same theme: Stalinism, they say is the inevitable outgrowth of Leninism. Once before, on the heel of working class defeats and Stalinist betrayals following the first world war, there was a similar chorus. In his article: Stalinism and Bolshevism, Trotsky applies his. scalpel to dissecting the political physiognomy o f those who sought to discredit the very idea of revolutionary Socialism ¡by identifying i t w ith Stalinism. W ritten during the period of the Spanish Civil War, Trotsky’s polemic is directed at the opponents o f Bolshevism whose politics played no small role in aiding Stalin, “ the organizer of defeats,” in carrying through his counter-revolutionary policy in Spain and elsewhere. The article entitled:.Stalinism and Bolshevism — Concerning the Historical and Theoretical Roots of the Fourth International, was published as a pamphlet in 1937 by Pioneer Publishers, 116 University Place, New York 3, N. Y.]

Leaders o f the Russian R evolution

Reactionary epochs like ours not only disintegrate and weak­en the working class and its van­guard but also lower the gen­eral ideological level of the move­ment and throw political think­ing back to stages long since passed through. In these condi­tions the task of the vanguard is above all not to let itse lf be carried along by the backward flow : i t must swim against the current.

I f an unfavorable relation of forces prevents i t from holding the positions that i t has won, i t must at least retain its ideo­logical positions, because in them is expressed the dearly-paid ex­perience of the past. Fools w ill consider this policy “ sectarian.' Actually it is the only means of preparing fo r a new tremendous surge forward with the coming historical tide.

Great political defeats inevita­bly provoke a reconsideration of values, generally occurring in two directions. On the one hand the true vanguard, enriched by the experience of defeat, defends w ith tooth and nail the heritage of revolutionary thought and on this basis attempts to educate new cadres fo r the mass strug­gle to come. On the other hand

the routinists, centrists and di­lettantes, frightened by defeat, do their best to destroy the au­thority o f revolutionary trad i­tion and go backward in their search fo r a “ New Word.”

One could indicate a great many examples of ideological reaction, most often taking the form of prostration. A ll the l i t ­erature of the Second and Third Internationals, as well as of their satellites o f the London Bureau, consists essentially of such examples. Not a suggestion of Marxist analysis. Not a single serious attempt to explain the causes of defeat. About the fu ­ture, not one fresh word. Noth­ing but cliches, conformity, lies, and above all solicitude fo r their own bureaucratic self-preserva­tion.

I t is enough to smell ten lines from some H ilferding or Otto Bauer to know this rottenness. The theoreticians of the Comin­tern are not even worth mention­ing. The famous D im itro ff is as ignorant and commonplace as a shopkeeper over a mug of beer. The minds of these people are tqo lazy to renounce Marxism: they prostitute it. But i t is not they that interest us now. Let us turn to the “ innovators.”

“The Dictatorship of the Lie”The former Austrian commun­

ist, W illi Schlamm, has devoted a small book to the Moscow trials, under the expressive title , “ The Dictatorship of the Lie.” Schlamm is a gifted journalist, chiefly interested in current a f­fairs. His criticism of the Mos­cow frame-up, and his exposure of the psychological mechanism of the “ voluntary confessions,” are excellent. However he does not confine himself to this: he wants to create a new theory of socialism which would insure us against defeats and frame- ups in the future.

But since Schlamm is by no means a theoretician and is ap­parently not well acquainted with the history of the development of socialism, he returns entire­ly to pre-Marxian socialism, and notably to its German, that is to its most backward, sentimental and mawkish variety. Schlamm renounces dialectics and the class struggle, not to mention the dictatorship of the proleta­ria t. The problem of transform­ing society is reduced fo r him to the realization of certain “ eternal” moral truths w ith which he would imbue mankind, even under capitalism.

W illie Schlamm’» attempt to save socialism by the insertion o f the moral gland is greeted

with both joy and pride in Keren­sky’s review "Novaya Rossia” (an old provincial Russian re­view now published in Paris): as the editors justifiably con elude, Schlamm has arrived at the principles of true Russian socialism, which a long time ago opposed the holy precepts of fa ith, hope and charity to the austerity and harshness of the class struggle. ,

The “ novel” doctrine of the Russian “ Social Revolutionaries” represents, in its “ theoretical” premises, only a return to the socialism of pre-March (1848!) Germany. However, i t would be unfair to demand a more in ti­mate knowledge of the history of ideas from Kerensky than from Schlamm. Far more im­portant is the fact that Keren­sky, who is in solidarity w ith Schlamm was, while head of the government, the instigator of persecutions against the Bolshe­viks as agents of the German general s ta ff: organized* thptj is, the same frame-ups against which Schlamm now mobilizes his motheaten metaphysical ab­solutes.

The psychological mechanism of the ideological reaction of Schlamm and his like, is not at all complicated. For a while these people took part in a polit-

^beginning: that the conquest of power, however important i t may be in itself, by no means transforms the party into a sov­ereign ruler of the historical process.

Having taken over the state, the party is able, certainly, to influence the development of so­ciety with a power inaccessible to it before; but in return i t submits itself to a ten times greater influence from all other elements of society. I t can, by the direct attack of hostile fo r­ces, be thrown out of power. Given a more dragging tempo of development, i t can degenerate internally while maintaining i t ­self in power. I t is precisely this dialectic of the historical process th a t is not understood by those sectarian logicians who try to find in the decay of the Stalinist bureaucracy an anni­hilating argument against Bol­shevism.

Lenin and Trotsky at an outdoor mass meeting to rally the workers in defense of the young Soviet Republic against the white guard and capitalist intervention armies. Lenin is seen addressing ¡the audience. Trotsky, organizer of the Red Army, waits (on the rig h t) to ascend the rostrum as the next speaker. For years the Stalinist picture-croppers, inside and outside the Soviet Union, have used th is picture of Lenin, first having care­fu lly “ edited” Trotsky out of it.

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Brooklyn Public Meeting

“ W orking Class Policy in the 1956 Elections”

HearFARRELL DOBBS — So­

cialist Worker's Party Presi­dential Candidate

W. E. B. DU BOIS — Distin­guished Scholar and Edu­cator

DAVID GOLDWAY — Exec.Sec. o f the Jefferson School

CLIFFORD T. McAVOY — Former ALP Candidate for Governor and Mayor

•Sunday, June 24 - 8 P. M.

Sunrisg Manor 1638 Pitkin Avenue

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Detroit Fri. NightSocialist Forum

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Sat., June 23 — 8 P. M.10609 Superior Ave.

CLEVELAND

ical movement that swore by the class struggle and appealed, in word i f not in thought, to dia­lectical materialism. In both Aus­tria and Germany the a ffa ir ended in a catastrophe. Schlamm draws a wholesale conclusion: this is the result o f dialectics and the class struggle! And since the choice of revelations is lim ­ited by historical experience and . . .by personal knowledge, our reformer in his search (for the Word fa lls on a bundle of old rags which he valiantly opposes not only to Bolshevism but to Marxism as well.

A t f irs t glance Schlamm’s brand of ideological reaction seems too prim itive (from Marx . . .to Kerensky!) to pause over. But actually i t is very instruc­tive: Precisely in its prim itive­ness i t represents the common denominator of all other forms of reaction, particularly of those expressed by wholesale denun­ciation of Bolshevism.

Marxism found its highest his­torical expression in Bolshevism. Under the banner of Bolshevism the firs t victory of the proleta­ria t was achieved and the firs t workers’ state established. Noth­ing can erase these facts from history. But since the October Revolution has led in the pres­

ent stage to the triumph of the bureaucracy, w ith its system of repression, plunder, and falsifica­tion — to the “ dictatorship of the lie,” to use Schlamm’s hap> py expression — many form al istic and superficial minds leap to a summary conclusion: one cannot struggle against Stalin­ism without renouncing Bolshev­ism.

Schlamm, as we already know, goes farther: Bolshevism, which degenerated into Stalinism, itself grew out of Marxism; conse­quently one cannot fig h t Staljfi*' ism while remaining on . the foundation of Marxism. i •

iThere are others, less Consist­

ent but more numerous, who say on the contrary: “ We mu$t

In essence these gentlemen say: the revolutionary partythat contains in itse lf no guar­antee against its own degenera­tion is bad. By such a criterion Bolshevism is naturally con­demned: i t has no talisman. But the criterion itself is wrong. Scientific thinking demands a concrete analysis: how and why did the party degenerate? No one but the Bolsheviks them­selves have up to the present time given such an analysis. To do this they had no need to break w ith Bolslfevism. On the contrary, they found in its arsenal all they needed sfor the clarification of its fate. They drew this conclusion: certainly Stalinism “ grew out” of Bolshev­ism, not logically, however, b.ut dialectically; not as a revolution­ary affirm ation but as a Ther- midorian negation. I t is by no means the same.

Disintegration of the Party

return from Bolshevism to ¡Marx ism.” How? To what Marxism? Before Marxism became “ bank­rup t” in the form o f Bolshev­ism i t had already broken down in the form of Social Democracy. Does the slogan “ Back to Marx­ism” then mean a leap over the periods of the Second and Third Internationals. . . to the F irs t International? But i t too broke down in its time. Thus in the last analysis i t is a question of returning. . . to the complete works of Marx and Engels.

The Bolsheviks, however, did not have to wait fo r the Moscow tria ls to explain the reasons fo r the disintegration of the gov­erning party of the USSR. Long ago they foresaw and spoke of the theoretical possibility of this development. Let us remember the prognosis of the Bolsheviks, not only on the eve of the Oc­tober Revolution but years be­fore. The specific alignment of forces in the national and in­ternational field Can enable the proletariat to seize power f irs t in a backward country such as Russia. But the same alignment of forces proves beforehand that without a more or less rapid victory of the proletariat In the advanced countries the workers’ government in Russia w ill not survive.

Le ft to itse lf the Soviet re­gime must either fa ll or degen­erate. More exactly: i t w ill f irs t degenerate and then fa ll. I my­self have written about this more than once, beginning in 1905. In my “ History of the Russian Rev­olution” (cf. “ Appendix” to the last volume: “ Socialism in One Country” ) are collected a ll the statements on this question made by the Bolshevik leaders from 1917 until 1923. They a jl ¡.lead

;2l'fo : one conclusion: w ithout arevolution in the West, Bolshev­ism w ill be liquidated either by internal counter-revolution or by external intervention, or by a combination of both. Lenin stressed again and again that

Bolshevism in the RevolutionOne can accomplish this heroic

leap without leaving one’s study and even w ithout taking o ff one’s slippers. But how are we to go from our classics (Marx died in 1883, Engels in 1895) to the tasks o f our own time, omitting several decades of theoretical and political struggles, among them Bolshevism and the Octo­ber Revolution?

None of those who propose to renounce Bolshevism as an his­torically “ bankrupt” tendency has indicated any other course. So the question- is reduced to the simple advice to study “ Capital.” We can hardly object. But the Bolsheviks, too, studied “ Capi­ta l” and not w ith their eyes closed. This did not however prevent the degeneration of the Soviet state and the staging of the Moscow trials. So what is to be done?

Is i t true tha t Stalinism rep­resents the legitimate product of Bolshevism, as all reaction­aries maintain, as Stalin him­self avows, as the Mensheviks, the anarchists, and certain le ft doctrinaires considering them­selves Marxist, believe? “ We have always predicted this,” they say. “ Having started w ith the prohibition of the other so­cialist parties, the repression of the anarchists, and the setting up of the Bolshevik dictatorship in the soviets, the October Revo­lution could only end in the dictatorship of the bureaucracy. Stalin is the continuation and also the banruptcy of Leninism.”

The flaw in this reasoning be­gins in the tacit identification of Bolshevism, October Revolu­tion and Soviet Union. The his­torical process of the struggle of hostile forces is replaced by the evolution of Bolshevism in a vacuum. Bolshevism, however, is only a political tendency, closely fused w ith the working

class but not identical with it. And aside from the working class there exists in the Soviet Union a hundred million peas­ants, various nationalities, and a heritage- of oppression, misery and ignorance.

The state bu ilt up by the Bol­sheviks reflects not only thé thought and w ill of Bolshevism but also the cultural level of the country, the social composition of the population, the pressure of a barbaric past and no less barbaric world imperialism. To represent the process of degen­eration of the Soviet state as the evolution of pure Bolshevism is to ignore social rea lity in the name of only one of its ele­ments, isolated by pure logic. One has only to call this ele­mentary mistake by . its real name to do away w ith every trace of it.

Bolshevism, at any rate, never identified itse lf either w ith the October Revolution or w ith the Soviet state that issued from it. Bolshevism considered itse lf as one of the factors of history, the “ conscious” factor — a very important but -not the decisive one. We never sinned in histori­cal subjectivism. We saw the decisive factor — on the existing basis of productive forces — in the class struggle, not only on a national but on an internation­al scale.

When the Bolsheviks made concessions to the peasant ten­dency to private ownership, set up strict rules fo r membership in the party, purged the party of alien elements, prohibited other parties, introduced the NEP, granted enterprises as Concessions, or concluded diplo­matic agreements w ith imperial­ist governments, they were draw­ing partial conclusions from the basic fact that had been theoret­ically clear to them from the

viewpoint, there is a grain of truth in this reasoning.

The state as an apparatus of constraint is undoubtedly a source of political and moral in ­fection. This also applies, as ex­perience has shown, to the work­ers’ state. Consequently i t can be said that Stalinism is a pro­duct of a condition of society in which society was s till unable to tear itse lf out of the strait- jacket of jthe state. Rut ttys situation, containing nothing fo r the evaluation of Bolshevism or Marxism, and above a ll — the

relation of forces between prole« taria t and bourgeoisie.

Having agreed w ith the anar­chists that the state, even the workers’ state, is the offspring of class barbarism and that reaj human history w ill begin w ith the abolition of the state, wo have s till before us in fu ll force the question: what ways and methods w ill lead, ultimately, to the abolition of the state? Re­cent , experience proves tha t they are certainly not the meth* ods o f anarchism.

The Experience of Spain

the bureaucratization; of the Soviet regime was not a technical or organizational question, but the potential beginning of the degeneration o f the workers’ state.

A t the Eleventh Party Con­gress in March, 1923, Lenin spoke <ff the support offered to Soviet Russia at the time of the NEP by certain bourgeois politicians, particularly the lib ­eral professor Ustrialov. “ I am fo r the support of the Soviet power in Russia,” said Ustria- lpv, although he was a Cadet, a bourgeois, a supporter o f in ­tervention — “ because o f its present course i t is sliding back int8 an ordinary bourgeois power.”

Lenin prefers the Cynical voice of the enemy to “ sugary com­munistic babble.’* Soberly and harshly he warns the party of the danger: “ What Ustrialovsays is possible, one must say i t openly. H istory knows trans­formations of all kinds; i t is absolutely tr iv ia l in politics to put one’s fa ith in conviction, de­votion, and other excellent moral qualities. A small number of people have excellent moral qual­ities. The historical outcome is decided by gigantic masses who, i f they are ¡pleased w ith this small number of people, w ill treat them none too politely.” In a word, the party is not the only factor of development and on a larger historical scale is not the decisive one.

Triumph of the Bureaucracy“ One nation conquers another,”

continued Lenin at the same congres^, the last in which he participated. . . “ This is quite simple and understandable to everyone. But what o f the cul­ture of these nations? That is not so simple. I f the conquering nation has a higher culture than the defeated, i t imposes its cul­ture on the latter, but i f the contrary is true then the defeat­ed nation imposes its culture on the conqueror. Did not something like this occur in the Capital of the RSFSR and was i t not in this way that 4,700 communists (almost a whole division and all of them the best) were submit­ted to an alien culture?” This was said in the beginning of 1923, and not fo r the f irs t time.

History is not made by a few people, even “ the best” ; and not only that.: these “ best” can de­generate in, the sp irit o f an alien, that is a bourgeois culture. Not only can the Soviet, state aban­don the way of socialism, but the Bolshevik party can, under unfavorable historic conditions, lose its Bolshevism.

From the clear understanding of this danger issued the Le ft Opposition, definitely formed in 1923. Recording day by day the symptoms of degeneration, i t tried to oppose to the growing

Thermidor the conscious w ill of the proletarian vanguard. How­ever, this subjective factor prov­ed to be insufficient.

The “ gigantic masses” which, according to Lenin, decide the outcome of the struggle, became tired of internal privations and of waiting too long fo r the world revolution. The mood o f the masses declined. The bureaucracy won the upper hand. I t cowed the revolutionary vanguard, trampled upon Marxism, prosti­tuted the Bolshevik party. Stal­inism conquered. In the form of the Le ft Opposition, Bolshevism broke w ith the Soviet bureaucra­cy and its Comintern. This was the real course of development.

To be sure, in a formal sense Stalinism did issue from Bolshev­ism. Even today the Moscow bureaucracy continues to call i t ­self the Bolshevik party. I t is simply using the old label of bolshevism the better to fool the masses. So much the more p itifu l are those theoreticians who take the, shell fo r the ker­nel . and the appearance fo r the reality. In the identification of Bolshevism and Stalinism they render the best possible service to the Thermidorians and pre­cisely thereby play a clearly re­actionary role.

The leaders of the [Spanish] CNT, the only important an­archist organization in the world, became, in the critical hour, bourgeois ministers. They ex­plained their open betrayal of the theory of anarchism by the pressure of “ exceptional circum­stances.” But did not the lead­ers of German social' democracy invoke, in their time, the same excuse? Naturally, civil war is not a peaceful and ordinary but an “ exceptional \circumstance.” Every serious revolutionary or­ganization, . however, prepares precisely fo r “ exceptional c ir­cumstances.”

The experience of Spain has shown once again that the state can be “ denied” in booklets pub­lished . in “ normal circumstances” by permission of the bourgeois state, but that the conditions of revolution leave no room fo r “ denial” o f the state; they de­mand, on the contrary, the con­quest of the state.

We have not the slightest in tention o f blaming the anarch ists fo r not having liquidated the state by a mere stroke of the pen. A revolutionary party, even after having seized power (of which the anarchist leaders were incapable itv spite of the heroism of the anarchist workers) is s till by no means the sovereign ruler of society. But we do severely blame the anarchist theory, which seemed to be wholly suit­able fo r times of peace, but which had to be dropped rapidly as soon as the “ exceptional' c ir­cumstances” o f the. . . revolu­tion had begun.

In the • old days there were

certain generals — and prob­ably are now — who considered that the most harmful thing fo r an army was war. In the same class are those revolutionaries who claim that their doctrine is destroyed by revolution.

Marxists are wholly in agree« ment with the anarchists in re­gard to the final goal: the liquid­ation of the state. Marxists are "state-ist” only to the extent that one cannot achieve the liquidation of the state simply by ignoring it. The experience of Stalinism does not refute the teaching of Marxism but con* firms it by inversion. The revo- lutionary doctrine which teach« es the proletariat to orientate itse lf correctly in situations and to profit actively by them, con­tains of course no automatic guarantee of victory. But victory is possible only through the ap­plication of this doctrine.

Moreover, the victory must not be thought of as a single event. I t must be considered in the perspective of an historic epoch. The firs t workers’ state — on a lower economic basis and sur­rounded by imperialism — was transformed into the gendarme­rie of Stalinism. But genuine Bolshevism launched a life and death struggle against that gen­darmerie. To maintain itself, Stalinism is now forced to con­duct a direct civil war against Bolshevism, under the name of “ Trotskyism” , not only in the USSR but also in Spain. The old Bolshevik party is dead but Bolshevism is raising its head everywhere.

Liberal Cliches and Logical FlawsTo deduce Stalinism from Bol­

shevism or from Marxism is the same as to deduce, iri a larger sense, counter-revolution from revolution. Liberal-con­servative and later reformist thinking has. always been char­acterized by this cliche. Due to the class structure of society, revolutions have always produced counter-revolutions. Does this not indicate, asks the logician, that there is some inner flaw in the revolutionary method? However, neither the liberals nor the reformists have succeed­ed, as yet, in inventing a more “ economical” method.

But i f i t is not easy to ration­alize the living historic process, i t is not at all d ifficu lt to give a rational interpretation of the alternation of its waves, and thus by pure logic to deduce Stalinism from “ state socialism” , fascism fro m . Marxism, reaction from revolution, in a word, the antithesis from the thesis. In

this domain as in many others anarchist thought is the prisoner of liberal rationalism. Real revo­lutionary thinking is not pos­sible without dialectics.

(Continued Next Week)

Book - A - MonthThe Explosion

A factual report o f the June, 1953 uprising of the

East German workers By Rainier Hildebrandt

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Purge of Revolutionary GenerationTn view of the elimination of

all other parties from the polit­ical field the antagonistic inter­ests and tendencies of the vari­ous strata o f the population must, to a greater or less de­gree, find their expression in the governing party. To the ex­tent that the political center of gravity has shifted from the proletarian vanguard to the bu­reaucracy, the party has chang­ed in its social structure as well as in its ideology.

Owing to the impetuous course of development, i t has suffered in the last fifteen years a fa r more radical degeneration than did the social democracy in half a century. The present purge draws between Bolshevism and Stalinism not simply a bloody line but a whole river of blood. The annihilation of a ll the old generation of Bolsheviks, an im­portant part of the middle gen­eration which participated in the

Civil war, and that part of the youth which took seriously the Bolshevik traditions, shows not only a political but a thoroughly physical incompatibility between Bolshevism and Stalinism. How can this be ignored?

The anarchists, fo r their part, try to see in Stalinism the or­ganic product not only of Bol­shevism and Marxism but of “ State socialism” in general. They are w illing to replace Ba­kunin’s patriarchal “ federation of free communes” by the more modern federation of free So­viets. But, as formerly, they are against centralized state power. In fact: one branch o f “ state” Marxism, social democracy, after coming to power became an open agent of capitalism. The other gave b irth to a new privileged caste. I t is obvious that the source of the evil lies in the state. From a wide historical

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Vol. XX — No. 25 Monday, June 18, 1956

The Stalinist "New Look//In psychological shock resulting froth,

(the revelations of the Khrushchev speech and in hope o f rehabilita ting themselves in the eyes of the American working class, the Stalinists in th is country are publicly apologizing fo r the ir past sins and promis­ing to tu rn over a new leaf.

The Daily W orker of June 7, fo r ex­ample, carries a front-page editorial, which says: “ We were wholly ignoran# th a t these crimes [of Stalin] had been com­m itted, yet there was reputable evidence had we but listen«!. How then explain our consistent denunciation o f many people as ‘enemies’ o f the working class because they condemned these crimes? We were wrong, te rrib ly wrong. . . W hat was un- forgiveable and inexcusable was the manner in which we passed judgement — harsh and sometimes vindictive in tone — on many of our fellow Americans based solely on the ir criticism o f the Stalin rule.”

The editoria l concludes w ith the promise th a t the Daily W orker w ill dedicate itse lf to the struggle against war, B ig Business, Jim Crow and the w itch hunt. “ We have our place w ith in th is p«>ple’s movement fo r a more democratic America. I t is w ith in its ranks tha t we must prove, anew, our rig h t to be heard w ith respect . . . ,” declares the editorial, and closes w ith the assertion — “ We intend to so prove.”

Is the Daily W orker’s resolve to be honest in the fu tu re and to shun the crimes o f the past to be taken at face value? No! The proof of all promises is in deeds, not words. The acid test w ill be tha t paper’s a ttitude toward its most vile ly abused and

libelled target of the past — the Trot­skyists.

Several weeks ago Pioneer Publishers tried to place an advertisement in the Daily W orker fo r one of its publications: Lenin’s Suppressed Testament w ith an in­troduction by Leon Trotsky. I t was dis­dainfu lly refused. How does th is square w ith the above-quoted editorial’s lament tha t “ We were ignorant tha t these crime' [of Stalin] had been committed, yet there was reputable evidence had we but listen , ed.” rsn’t the refusal of the ad continuance o f the old policy and preventing Daily W orker readers from reading ail the avail­able evidence?* This past week the Socialist Workers Party tried in vaan to place a paid ad for a public meeting on the Khrushchev revela­tions in the Daily W orker. S ignificantly enough the Daily W orker business office, th ink ing it was the right-w ing Socialist Party, was w illing to take the ad. When the misunderstanding was cleared up, a frosty rejection followed.

Khrushchev’s discrediting of the Mos­cow T ria l “ confessions” leaves the Daily W orker unable to use the old slanders o f “ spy. provocateur, fascist,” etc., against the Trotskyists. But bereft o f its old vocabulary, the Daily W orker nevertheless acts the same.

Actually, its contrite and loudly-pro­claimed “ new look” iis a hypocritical part o f its rig h t tu rn and its wooing o f the labor bureaucrats, reform ists and social democrats. For revolutionary opponents of Stalinism i<t cherishes the old hatred.

"Labor FBI" No SolutionSome weeks ago, an unknown thug

threw acid in the face o f V icto r Riesel and blinded the Hearst labor columnist. Since then every labor hater in the coun­try has been howling fo r an “ investiga­tion ” o f racketeering in the unions. The rabid ly anti-labor Republican Congressman Frelinghuysen of New Jersey, is yammer­ing fo r a “ full-scale Congressional probe o f labor racketeering.” A fte r seeing Riesel on TV in a “ fist-clenched appeal fo r estab­lishm ent o f a permanent Congressional committee to root out union, crooks,” President Eisenhower declared he “ wanted to do something about it.”

On the basis o f past experience w ith Congressional “ investigations” involving the unions, Labor’s Daily, June 9, warned edito ria lly tha t any “ Congressional probe a la McCarthy would degenerate into noth­ing less than a gigantic smear of all labor unions, and probably would lead to the passage o f more oppressive anti-union legislation.”

Alarmed by the swelling volume of the B ig Business-inspired smear campaign, the conservative top union officialdom has an­nounced a “ cleanup” drive o f its own. The AFL-CIO Executive Council has directed its E thical Practices Committee to bring in recommendations. And ju s t to put the

frosting on the cake, Alex Rose, president of the Hat, Cap and M illinery Worker’s Union, proposed to the union’s recent con­vention, the establishment of “ Labor’s F .B .I.” to be “ staffed by expert in ­vestigators fo r gathering evidence of ex­tortion and evil-doing.”

None o f the proposals to eliminate racketeering in the labor movement even touches the prim ary source of the evil. The source is the bureaucratization of the unions. In order to carry out th e ir policy o f collaboration w ith the bosses the union bureaucrats seek to s tifle all m ilitan t opposition in the ranks. M ilita n t union fighters are harassed, framed, fired o ff the job, fingered to the FB I, and black­listed. This d irty work is carried through w ith the cooperation of the union bureau­crats, the employers and the capitalist government.

Union racketeers can flourish only in ar atmosphere o f bureaucratic repression. Where there is rank and file control and internal union democracy any would-be racketeers are given short-shrift. Couple rank and file control and union democracy w ith a class struggle program tha t reflects the interests o f the workers on the job and labor racketeering w ill be ended fo r­ever.

N. Y. Times and Political MoralityThe New York Times has made ex­

tensive editoria l comment on the Khrush­chev speech to the 20th Congress o f the Soviet Communist Party. The views ex­pressed in these editorials, which have been echoed by top government officia ls, reek o f hypocrisy and fraud.

The Times reports th a t it found i t a “ searing experience” to read Khrushchev’s description of S talin’s crimes. But the “ in itia l shock” wore o ff quickly and the editors were able to get down to the busi­ness o f explaining “ the sense of satisfac­tion (tha t) must pervade every opponent o f communism.”

Denouncing “ dictatorship” in general, the Times points out tha t “ the new Soviet rulers object only to an application o f S talin ’s ‘brutal and inhuman’ methods to themselves . . . not to the methods as such or the profitable result of them.”

When the Times talks about opposing not some, but a ll dictators, regardless of “ profitable results,” the adage about peo­ple who live in glass houses is brought to mind. The American government spends a fortune to prop up the dictator Rhee in South Korea and the dictator Chiang Kai- shek on the island o f Formosa. The Times has no quarrel w ith these particular dicta­tors who act as pawns in the U.S. drive to preserve the private property system and the “ rig h t” to super-exploit labor.

Additional m illions are spent by the U.S. on the hated dictator Franco. The “ moral revulsion” of the Times against the Soviet dictatorship is curiously absent in relation to U.S. funds fo r the Spanish dictatorship.

The position of the Times on dictators d's predicated on the dictum of capitalist politicians — Whose dictator is it? When it coincided w ith U.S. foreign policy, the Times was quite tolerant of the Stalinist dictatorship itse lf. I t now says tha t it has long known of S talin’s bestial crimes, and th a t, “ two decades ago it was apparent tha t the blood of innumerable innocent victim s had stained his hands indelibly.”

We don’t challenge th is assertion. But a reading of the Times of tha t period, which carried the odious whitewash reports of the Moscow tria ls by W alter Duranty. would not le t anyone in on the secret that the Times knew the tria ls were frame-ups.

During tha t tim e the Times also “ so­berly” refrained from speaking out against the sem i-official State Department white­wash of the tria ls contained in Ambassador Davies “ Mission to Moscow” book and movie. The Times was equally silent when the State Department, during the war years, suppressed publication o f Trotsky’s biography of Stalin.

The spokesmen of the American capital­is t class have seized upon the K h rush che v revelations in an attem pt to discredit the very idea of socialism. They hope thereby to make putrid , decaying capitalism, ap­pear less revolting to its victim s. In the fina l showdown they w ill have no trouble aligning themselves w ith the bureaucrats and dictators o f every stripe against the masses fig h tin g fo r liberation from capita list class rule and to ta lita rian op­pression.

Anniversary o f the East German UprisingBy John Black

The name o f the city, Berlin. The name of the street, Stalin- Allee. The date June 16, 1953.

Work had already begun tihat morn/ing on tihe giant row of apartment houses that were being constructed amidst the heaps of rubble le ft from the terror bombings which had destroyed the greater part of the city dur­ing the test war.

The construction craws of build­ing workers had hesitated and debated fo r several aninluftes be­fore climbing up into the scaf­folding. Work quotas had been raised another 10 per cent and things were already much too tough. Everyone knew that brief work stoppages had taken place four days previously on the day new quotas were announced. Only the combination of persuasion and threats by the ir trade union of­ficiate had prevented a fu ll blown strike.

RESENT PROPAGANDAAnd after all the protests and

strikes, “ The Tribune” , official paper of the Stalinized unions had come out with some more of that s tu ff about “ the determina­tion of the Building workers on .Sitatin - AKee to increase their output by another 10 per cent in an extra e ffo rt to over-fulfill the quotas fo r the Five Year Plan in construction,’’

Housing was greatly needed. There was no argument over that. But every new available facility was assigned to the Socialist Unity Party functionaries and to “ Hennecke workers.”

The Hennecke workers were the speed-up artists who by abnormal and superhuman effort and working under exceptionally favorable conditions had over­reached the demanded quotas. And then what happened? Everybody else was expected' to produce as much as these Hennecke workers;

only every day and all the time.“ The workers now rule. The

German Democratic Republic is your state. You are building fo r yourself.” That’s what the gov­ernment officials said.

STALIN ’S CRUMBSOld man Pieck and that

Ulbrieht w ith his goatee, who spoke, with a soft Saxonian dialect but whose words were the harsi words of the Kremlin. Who had given fhepi the righ t to speak fo r the workers of Germany? They had pot suffered under Hitler, had they? None of that bunch had eyen experienced life under the Nasjis. Living in the Soviet Union o ff the crumbs of Stallin’̂ table fo r 12 years and then hack into the saddle when, the Soviet troops -marched into Germany.

These were some of the spoken thoughts on that morning, Aftea- weeks of working together you knewr pre tty well, who could be trusted pot to report you, »

And then i t happened. I t all started in Block 40. Using the back qf the banner they had been assigned to carry on May first proclaiming their “ support” of the Five Year Plan demands pn them, they painted the slogan that summed up what everyone really fe lt: “ We want lowerquotas;” Then they formed into »/ column, linked arms and marched down the endless row of blocks being erected.

START OF ACTION. “ I t ’s started • . . Here i t is . . .

O ff we come and with them. . . Tools down... drop that b rick . . . Foreman- step aside, we march with Block 40.” Building after bpilding joined the procession, the march fo r lower quotas.

■“Le t’s go and see the goatee. No good ta lking to anyone else. No more promises, we want action now. I t must be the tops, no one else has any authority anyhow.”

Their destination was the seat qf the government, the imposing A ir M in istry : which Hennmr Goering had built fo r himself. Ulbrieht and his fellow ministers; had taken i t over. By the time the demonstrators reached i t their number had grown to six thou­sand. Men and women had heeded their call and joined the march behind the banner. The gates to the government building- were closed. Fiom the windows people were looking down upon them.

“ We .want Ulbrieht. Bring out Grotewohl. Down with the quotas.”

That is how i t all began. I t did qot help When the Minister of Economics, Hans S e I b m a n n, climbed on the table that was finally brought out and announced that he thought the demand's of the workers were justified. H would see to 'it, he said, that the quotas few- the workers on the Stsiin-A'Ilee were lowered.

MOVEMENT SPREADSThings had gone to fa r fo r

that now. Wihat about all the other construction workers in East Berlin? And what about the construction workers in the whole Eastern Zone. And anyhow now Shaft .we have them on the run, why not free elections and a ijew government — one that really represented the workers, ij i deeds rather than in words ?

“ We must not stop now. Every­one out tomorrow. Let them all join with ns. A really big strike. A general strike. Time to change everything.” By the end of that day twenty thousand construction workers in East Berlin had downed tools.

Bait i t was really - on June 17. the next day, that the movement which had begun as a spontaneous protest of building workers over quotas developed into a political uprising against the whole bur­eaucracy and spread throughout all of East Germany. Before the day was over city after city in the industrial areas of the country went on strike. Giant meetings in the public squares, election- of city-wide strike committees, jails were stormed and political p r i­soners set free.

REVOLUTIONARY PROGRAMNot one slogan recorded, noli

one speech remembered, that had the slightest overtones of a desire to return to the old regime. Be i t at the Bitterfeld rally, be if at the two greatest industrial con­cerns of East Germany, the Leuna works and the Buna works, be i f in Berlin or in Leipzig, none called fo r the Nazis, none cheered fo r Adenauer, that priest-ridden a lly of -the Ruhr barons who ruled in the. Western Zone by the grace of Wall Street.

I t was the idealistic and devoted young communist g irl who joined the construction workers action jn Berlin who voiced the program pf the. uprising in East Germany. Had not Lenin said that the communists should lead the work­ers in their struggles? Boldly seizing the microphone she said: ’‘Preserve the economic founda-

tions of our proletarian power. ,et us all stand together and

build a happy new life in a free Germany, w i t h o u t occupation

Seek Q u ick Steel P act

Shaking hands before sitting down in Pittsburgh fo r negotiations ;are David J. McDonald (1), president of the United Steelworkers, and C lifford S. Hood, president o f <U-S. Steel Corp. Later, Big 3 steel companies agreed to meet jo in tly with the union fo r the firs t time in the industry’s history.

STALINISTS ABSTAIN FNOM ATTACK ON MOLLETS ALGERIAN POLICIES

By Carl GoodmanIn the vote in the National

Assembly, June 5, giving French Premier Mollet backing fo r his policy of repressions in Algeria, the CP deputation of 144 ab­stained. This marked a change over three months ago, when the Stalinists voted fo r “ Social­ist” Mollet’s bloody course in A l­geria.

However, the French CP lead­ers did not change their basic line of giving political support to the Cabinet. They continue to orient towards unity w ith the Socialist Party tops as a firs t step toward a ‘ ‘Popular Front” government w ith the liberal sec­tion of the French imperialists.

CHANGE UNDER PRESSURE

The change in the CP vote came about under the accumu­lated pressure of the Frentfh working class in general, which hates the “ d irty war” in Algeria, and the pressure o f the tens of thousands of CP m ilitant work­ers in particular. To meet this pressure, the French CP tops have, had to OK mass meetings, strikes and demonstrations by party units and the Stalinist-, controlled General Confedera­tion of Labor (CGT, according to French in itia ls).

The number of protest action» by workers and soldiers (both CGT and non-CGT led) has been so great that, according to the June 6 N.Y. Times, “ Communist m ilitants at the party base find i t increasingly d ifficu lt to un­derstand how tfcpir leaders *» the party and in Parliament, can

continue to support the Mollet Government.”OFFER LAME EXCUSES

Abstention was in itse lf only a small concession by the Stalin­is t chiefs to the aroused CP membership. I f i t meant abstain­ing from open endorsement i t also meant abstaining from de­nunciation of the course pur­sued by French imperialism in its attempt to keep Algeria in subjection. The excuse the Stal­inist chiefs give fo r not cast­ing an outright vote against Mollet is that they favor his social welfare policy and his grant of formal independence to former “ protectorates” in Tuni­sia and Morocco. But a m ilitant campaign o f demonstrations — as appealing to Socialist and pon-party workers as to the CP ranks —• would force the Mollet government not only to retreat fit the Algerian war but also grant working class demands at home. ,

The real reason the French Stalinist tops w ill not break w ith Mollet is that unity w ith him is decreed by Khrushchev and the other Kremlin chiefs. I t is the meaning of the “ peaceful co­existence” slogan so insistently defended at the 20th Congress of the CPSU last February. This policy envisages a world status quo agreement between the Soviet bureaucracy and U.S., British and French imperialism. And that means a Stalinist guarantee fo r imperialist holdings in the colonial' world.

In the offic ial communique is­sued following the Mollet talks With Bulganin « id Khrushchev appears the following statement

regarding Algeria: “ The Soviet Ministers have expressed the hope that the French Govern­ment, in the liberal sp irit that guides it, w ill succeed in find­ing an appropriate solution of this important problem.”

The “ liberal sp irit” guiding the French Government consists of torture and concentration camp imprisonment of Algerian nationalist m ilitants plus use of 400,000 troops to crush the na­tional liberation revolution. To this has been added hypocritical talk about “ reforms” i f the A l­gerian nationalists firs t surren­der. Praise fo r Mollet’s “ liberal sp irit” was also the hallmark of U.S. Ambassador Dillon’s en­dorsement of the Mollet course in Algeria.

In the same 'libe ra l sp irit” the Mollet regime is trampling on civil liberties of opponents of the Algerian war at home. I t has repeatedly seized issues of La Verite, French Trotskyist newspaper. La Verite has con­sistently over the years cham­pioned the anti-imperialist strug­gle of the masses of the French colonies. In addition Le Liber- taire, an anarchist paper, the liberal France Observateur, the newspaper Demain and the Sta- ljn is t L ’Humanite have been seized fo r carrying sympathetic accounts o f the Algerian strug­gle fo r independence. A number of prominent individuals are in ja il, under arrest or police in­vestigation fo r their opposition tp the war. These include the Well-known socialist w rite r Dan­iel Guerin, author o f the recent­ly published book: Negroes on the March.

forces and without exploiters capitalists and landlords.”

Pof the lack of a revolutionary party to lead the struggle the German workers uprising wai thrown back. The Stalinist bureau­cracy had to make many cotlces sioTLiS to the workers but the; also took savage reprisals again® those wflvo bad been the ir spokes­men. The effect of the revolt t o ■ fe lt throughout Eastern Europe and inside the Soviet Union Hundreds of thousands of Ret Army soldiers stationed in Ger­many carried the true story of tht revolt back honve.

INSPIRES VORKUTA STRIKEThe men in the Kremlin knev

quite well that this was a revolt of the workers against tiheiir bur­eaucratic puppet regime in Ger­many and was not the product of evil machinations by Western imperialist agents. They saw the Soviet workers identifying them­selves with the East Germans. Ir the Soviet slave Labor camps ii Vorkuta the news was received w ith great enthusiasm. Returnees from the camps have told how the news of the East German revolt, inspired them to organize and launch their oNvn strike action. They were convinced the

•June uprising was the beginning of the political revolution which would topple the hated parasitic

• Stalinist caste and restore the Wankers to power.

'History w ill record that to the workers o f East. Germany goes the honor o f having struck the first open revolutionary blow fo r the whole world to see against the hated Stalinist bureaucracy. The fear that the workers throughout the Soviet zone would emulate the June heroes was an

. inipoifbqpt factor in extracting 'the concessions which the Soviet bureaucracy is now making to the workers.

But the- social forces set in motion iby bureaucratic repres­sions cannot be swerved by meager concessions. The conces­sions w ill provide a vantage point from which the workers w ill gain new. strength and gather mo­mentum. I t is along the path blazed by the heroic June fighters in Germany that the final strug­gle against the bureaucracy w ill unfold. Neither concessions nor repressions can in the long run prevent the ultimate victory of the workers against the bureau­cratic deformation of the eman­cipating socialist revolution.

A Letter To M y Parents------------ By M urry Weiss —— —

Dear Folks,R ight now is the busiest and happiest period of my

life . The shattering revelations .that came from the 20th Congress and from Poland were, o f course, no cause fo r rejoicing. The news that hundreds of thousands' of revolutionary workers and the flower of the cultural leaders of the Jew!si people and other nationalities in the Soviet Union had perished brought grief to all class-con­scious working people every­where.

lion consisted in his struggle to rescue the precious heritage of the October revolution and of Bolshevism, from obliteration at (he hands of the bureaucratic usurpers.

The heritage of Lenin and October lives and pulsates in the

But you must remember that we knew of these crimes an; cried out against them fo r many years. For us the meaning of th< revelations iis that the murderous gang that held power so long, torturing and tw isting the revolu­tion to theiir bureaucratic in­terests, are at Last feeling the hot breath of the revolutionary Rhtssian working class at their backs.

MOURN FOR VICTIMSThat is why our g rie f motel

give way to unbounded joy. Yes, mourn fo r the martyrs of Jewish culture, murdered by the Stalin regime; mourn fo r tfiie fallen eommiumsit. workers who fought. Stalinist reaction and Who, unlike the servile Khrushchevs and Bui - ganins, did not keep quiet; mourn fo r the millions of innocent victims of Stalin ’s hideous crimes: butt rejoice in the rebirth of the Russian Revolution.

I was profoundly moved when Myra told me how you wept at the news from Poland. Dad’s simple statement to her: “ You were rig h t and we were blind,’ w ill not be. received by us in the sp irit of vindictive triumph. Our historic fight was not w ith the revolutionary workers. Our vin­dication is not over the hones' rank-and-file fighters for com­munism. You have both worked in the Shoifis all your lives. Yo« never had a stake in bureaucratic power — either in the USSR or in the union to which you belong. You are tied by life-long struye'h' to the cause of the emancipating socialist movement.

I t was w ith a th rill o f pride that I read Myra’s report of how you t.old her: “ Some of oun friends, after hearing tile gibasltlj news about the decimation of the Jewish cultural leaders, said: ‘Democratic capitalism isn’t so bad after all.’ ” You answered “ we reject this conclusion. They .-»dll never break us. We w ill fight! the Soviet bureaucracy hut w ill never make peace w ith the capitalist exploiters.”

These are the words of honest militants and I have the deepest respect for the feeling underlying them.

A TRYING PERIODBoth your generation and mine

have lived through a try ing epoch. We saw the black wave of fascism engulf Europe and then hurl its armed m ight across the borders of the Soviet Union. How many tens of millions, in ­cluding six million' Jews, perished in this flood of capitalist barbar­ism. And our two generations also 9aw the terrible - b light of Stalinism descend on the land of the October revolution. How many o f the best revolutionary fighters were destroyed during this reactionary hlight? And how many lost heart and turned away fiom the revolutionary path?

But the line of revolutionary continuity has been maintained. Trotsky’s historic contribution during those dark years of reac-

awakening consciousness of the Russian' proletariat. This is the mighty force that is shaking the bureaucracy to its very founda­tions. And w ith the rise of the Russian proletariat the whole world •communist movement w ill be reconstructed. Already the colossal power of working- class and colonial revolution has proven fa r stronger on a world scale than either imperialist capitalism or the Stalinist bureaucracy. Whait an enormous reinforcement the revolutionary awakening of the Russian working class w ill bring to these anti-capitalist forces!

FIGHT GOES ONYou are absolutely right. lit. is

shameful to bow before decadent capitalism. A fte r all, Stalinism was the product precisely of the capitalist encirclement o f the Soviet Union. I t was the pressure of world capitalism and the heritage of the Czarist past that facilitated the rise of the Stalinist faction and condemned the firs t workers’ state in ‘history to pass through the purgatory of a bu­reaucratic degeneration.

Now that we have before our eyes the evidence of the invincible power of the October revolution, when we see how much was accomplished despite the unbe­lievable crimes of Stalinism, when we see the onward march of the world socialist forces, there is every reason to take heart and renew one’s unshakeable belief in the communist future of mankind.

I embrace you and look fo r­ward to our reunion when we w ill have opportunity enough to ta lk as we did in the past, to assess what has happened and size up the new world that is being born.

Your son,Murry

Just Published in English

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The Negro StruggleBy Jean Blake

The 47th animal convention of the Na­tional Association fo r the Advancement of Colored People opens in San Francisco on June 26th. Developments in the world struggle and in the U.S. struggle fo r the advancement o f colored people are a t a stage tha t could make th is the most his­torica lly significant gathering in the or­ganization’s history.. Abroad, the colonial masses are demon­

stra ting the ir determ ination to end im ­peria list ru le and exploitation. A t home, the Southern Negroes have entered the arena in combat against Jim Crow in the ir own name, w ith mass action. This is the decisive new facto r in the situation. 1 the delegates recognize it, th is year’6 con­vention w ill re-evaluate some o f its old policies in the lig h t o f Montgomery and Tallahassee.

This year in particular, the NAACP should consider how its po litica l action program can be qualitative ly changed so th a t the power o f the masses, already demonstrated through boycotts and other actions on the economic fie ld, can acquire Effective politica l expression.

The Negro masses have already laid the groundwork fo r independent action on the politica l fie ld. A fte r the sadistic murder c- Emmett T ill and other te rro ris tic out­breaks by white supremacists in Missis­sippi, th is country saw the most massive and miMtant nation-wide protest demon­strations in decades. In Montgomery, mere protest was transform ed in to effec­tive organized action th a t raised the move- jnent to new heights o f solidarity and self- iconfidence. These are the things tha t have inade c iv il righ ts the paramount issue in the 1956 presidential election campaign.

W hat can the NAACP do to make the most o f th is favorable situation ?

ns MILITANTThe old policy and program fo r poMica’’

action is not suited fo r th is new situation In the South the NAACP has conducted court tests fo r the r ig h t to vote; in north em industria l centers, campaigns to induce Negroes to register and vote; and in the national and some state capitals, lobbying fo r legislative reforms. B ut tha t is all. The NAACP has been o ffic ia lly non-par­tisan. I t has tried to coax or threaten politicians, hu t not select or control them The result has been some crumbs fo r ? privileged few, but no c iv il righ ts legis­la tive gains fo r the Negro masses as a whole.

This type and, method o f politica l action was tolerable only so long as the m ajority o f colored people were isolated in rural areas in the South. W hat could a lone Ne­gro do in a southern plantation county? Nothing. So the NAACP could plead, coax, pray and b lu ff, like union representatives in an unorganized industry who know they have no power to back them up.

But industria lization and mechanization have pushed thousands and thousands of Negroes o ff the land and massed them in cities and towns -where they have dis­covered the strength o f organized num­bers, the methods and tactics of class straggle.

The next step is to recognize th a t of fic ia l “ non-partisanship” consisting of abstention from endorsing candidates, has been a back-handed way of endorsing wha' some leaders consider the lesser o f two evils.

Now tha t Negro masses have demon strafed they can be organized fo r unite"' positive action, it is tim e fo r the NAACP to give a d iffe re n t content to its “ non parti sanship.”

(Continued next week.)

VOLUME XX MONDAY, JUNE 18, 1956 NUMBER 25

Labor’s Role Not TaughtBy Della Rossa

A v iv id picture confirm ing the point rarelymade in The M ilita n t recently tha t the school system has long been an instru­ment of capita list class propaganda ap­pears in the May 24th issue o f Kenosha Labor, a Wisconsin organ of the AFL- CIO.

A New York school teacher, whose name was withheld to prevent retaliation, points out tha t the average school child knows nothing o f the contribution o f labor in build ing our country, “ or o f the sacrifices o f ordinary working men and women who, through struggles and strikes, made possible our eight-hour day and our pres­ent ‘high standard of liv ing .’ ”

“ Not machines,” she writes, “ but or­ganized labor have given to the American people the leisure and the luxuries o f which we are so ju s tly proud.”

From the schools, she says, the child w ill get the impression tha t “ labor” is a racketeering o u tfit tha t stubbornly refuses to meet management halfway, composed of people who callously cut o ff m ilk and coal supplies.

The kids are taught to want to become business men, but in our increasingly monopolistic economy th is is an unrealistic goal and can only lead to frustra tion and a feeling o f fa ilure. “ Inab ility to achieve the goal o f economic ‘success’ is regarded as personal defect, a flaw in one’s psyche!,” she writes., Your child w ill learn about Ford or W alt Disney, th is school teacher a ffirm s, but

about labor o ffic ia ls such as Gompers, Lewis and Green, “ and never about the union organizer, the shop steward or the Jimmy H iggins on the picket lin e !”

“ Every year,” she relates, “ the Board of Education o ffic ia lly sponsors an essay con­test ran by the Chamber o f Commerce Last year’s topic was: ‘How Individual Enterprise Has Helped Make America Great.’

“ When other organizations wanted to ran another contest on the subject of ‘How Cooperation Has Helped Make America Great’ the request was turner down by the New York C ity Superintend­ent of Schools, W iliam A. Jansen.”

Our unnamed school teacher makes th is im portant point in her a rtic le : Labor has become increasingly aroused to what’s hap pening in the schools. This interest musl not be confined to techniques and condi­tions such as over-crowding. The content is the basic question.

Akron is one point where organize? labor has been aroused to question th very content o f public education. This c it\ is one of ten in the country being used in s p ilo t project by the anti-labor “ Joint Coun cil on Economic Education” o f New Y orl which was set up by B ig Business tf in tensify the drive to teach the “ joys of free enterprise” to school kids. Akron labor has countered th is by organizing a Joint AFL-CIO Committee bn Schools and Education to “ combat business pressure.’

Stalin a Felon - - But Right! Says Strong

By W illiam Bundy NEW YORK, June 13 — “ Sta­

lin committed errors, abuses, and even crimes, i f you care to use that word,” said Anna Louise Strong at a Stalinist sponsored meeting here llast night, “ but the balance sheet of the Stalin era is definitely on the plus side.” She spoke at a meeting under the auspices of the Na­tional Council of American So­viet Friendship on “ Latest De­velopments in the Soviet Union.”

For three decades now, Anna Louise Strong has made a pro­fession a t apologizing fo r the crimes of Stalin and Stalinism. In spite of the revelations of the Khrushchev speech, she hasn’t yet been able to break the habit.

Her speech last night followed almost word fo r word, the a rti­cle she wrote in the A p ril issue of her news letter Today, which came out before the Khrushchev speech was published.

FINDS STALIN MODESTIn that article she said “ From

what I saw of Stalin in the early 30’s, I fe lt that he was expert in committee action, in getting unanimity without pres­sure. He proclaimed ‘collective decision’ long before Khrushchev; his rise to power was precise­ly the rise of the party collec­tive over the erratic individuals like Trotsky. Ambassador Davies found Stalin ‘personally modest’ ; with this I agree. . . ’’

The fact that the Khrushchev revelations make that statement appear idiotic was simply ignor­ed by Strong last night. She dis­missed the speech by saying that it was not an offic ial Soviet document, that i t was published by the U.S. State Department, and that Khrushchev did not want i t to be revealed. “ Besides,” she said, “ i t is only the firs t draft.”

In drawing up her “ balance sheet,” she listed the economic advances made by the Soviet Union, the defeat of H itle r’s ar­mies, and the spread of the revo­lution to one th ird of the world, in Stalin’s favor. She said: “ Let us rejoice in all new freedoms, they were bought. . . not only by death of heroes in battle, but by death of men unjustly, and in mistakes. , . le t us also give tribute to that harsh, even un­just discipline which in 30 years 'whipped up’ a peasant land to a role i t was not yet f i t for, and thus built the economic base on which freedom can be safe and at peace today.”

STALIN A RIGHT GUYShe also said Stalin was righ t

A t Labo r B u ild in g D ed ica tion

Notes from the NewsCARIBBEAN DESPOT Truj-illo, who, to the

extent a small country can allow, rivals H itle r find Stalin fo r deeds of bloody cruelty, has started a. propaganda offensive in N.Y.C. The recent disappearance, and believed murder, of Dr. Jesus de Galindez, on the eve of 'his publication of an anti-T ru jillo book has given the Dominican dictator a bad press in New York. Galindez’ (disappearance follows the assassination several years ago o f the editor of an anti-Trujillo news­paper published in New York by Dominican exiles. 'Numerous exiles in Cuba have been assassinated }»y T ru jillo agents. New York now has a number M huge billboards with T ru jillo ’s picture and propaganda. On June 4 Dominican agents staged a pro-Trujillo ra lly in New York at Which his

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opponents were implied to be ‘^Gommunists,” acting in revenge because T ru jillo ‘‘is blamed foi the fa ll of the Arbenz regime in Guatemala.’ A n ti-T ru jillo pickets outside the meeting, provok­ed into a scuffle w ith a T ru jillo agent, were arrested by New York police.

FBI INFLUENCING FOREIGN POLICY. TheN. Y. Times (Jurte 4) reports a major obstacle to “ expanding contacts between the U.S. and Com­munist countries” is the opposition of J. Edgar Hoover. His claim is that delegations from those countries; to the U.S. would contain secret agents and thus make more work fo r the FBI.

TWO REACTIONARY DECISIONS were handed down by the U.S. Supreme Court on June 4. In one, Wisconsin’s restriction- of striking Kohler workers’ right to picket was upheld. In the other, the Cutter Laboratory’s 1949 firing of a local union' president because of alleged mem­bership in the Communist Painty was upheld. Ir his dissent, in the la tte r case Justice Douglas declared: “ Government may not disqualify one political group from employment. And i f the courts lend their support to any such discrimi­natory program . . . the government has thrown its weight behind an unconstitutional scheme to discriminate against citizens by reason of their political ideology.” Both decisions were 6-3, with Justices Douglas-, Black and Chief Justice Warren dissenting.

* * *

REPUBLICANS AIM FOR NEGRO VOTE. Ata Washington conference of the Citizens fo r Eisenhower, the organization’s public relations chief told delegates tha t a 5 to 10% - switch in Negro votes this year “ would almost certainly mean the election of a Republican Congress.’ Plans were laid accordingly. One slogan recom­mended fo r use in wooing the Negro vote was: “ A vote fo r any Democrat is a vote fo r Eastland.”

M yra Tanner Gets Radio, Press and TV Interviews

MINNEAPOLIS, June 9 — M yra Tanner Wei®«, So­cia list W orkers Party candidate fo r vice-president today set out on the next lap o f her coast-to-coast speaking tourafte r three days of hard-hitting, ®-------------- :---------------------------------well publicized caimjjBgn activity

President Eisenhower ( r ) and AFL-CIO President George Meany are shown in ,the lobby of the new $4 million AFL-CIO building in Washington, after Eisenhower dedicated the new union headquarters. He said nothing about the role of unions as a means of defense by the American workers against Big Busi­ness exploitation. Instead, he warned organized labor not “ to dominate” the individual.

on “ socialism in one country at that time,” and that he was righ t “ in Calling Trotsky a mischief maker.” This was the only time in her entire speech that Trotsky was mentioned. She did not deal w ith the Moscow trials. None of the questions submitted on these subjects was answered dur­ing the question and answer per­iod.

She completely ignored the fact, admitted by Khrushchev, that the crimes of Stalinismhindered the progress of the So­viet Union and almost brought m ilita ry disaster. Throughout, she implied that they were neces­sary and inevitable.

“ The most important abuse,” she said, “ was the unbridledpower of the political or secret police.” “ But this body was not the creation of Stalin. I t goes back to the days o f the Czar. The Russian people have had a hard time breaking with the habit of political repression,”she said.

DIDN’T WANT FUSSShe had known of the use of

torture, anti-Semitism, and “ un­just political repressions,” she admitted, but said: “ I know why I didn’t make a fuss about those things to the world. . . I fe lt I

was seeing something so vast and important that I didn’t want to do any thing to stop it . ”

Anna Louise Strong herself had become a victim of ‘ ‘unjust political repression” when she was arrested by the NKVD in 1949, charged w ith sabotage and espionage, and deported from the USSR. She was “ rehabilitated” in March 1955. She said of this incident: “ In a certain sense, I had i t coming to me. I was boost­ing Mao Tse-tung and the Chi­nese revolution all over the world before Stalin- recognized them and gave the green light. . . but there are times to criticize and times to shut up and take orders . . .to attack leaders at the wrong time is to lose the war.” This is apparently her idea of how to “ be careful about jus tify ­ing terror.”

The entire speech was an at­tempt to jus tify absolute and slavish acceptance of everything the Soviet bureaucracy had ever done, without admitting that any other course was possible. Since the bureaucracy itself has been forced to admit that much of its activity was criminal and avoidable, the speech was contra­dictory, confused, and confus­ing.

in the Twin Cities.A press conference fo r the SWP

nominee held here on her arrival June 6 was covered by tlhe Min­neapolis Tribune and by the Star. WIOCO-TV brought in its cameras fo r the conference and at 6 o'clock that night presented Mrs. Weiss on the widely viewed Cedric Adiarns newscasts.

The Star featured an interview w ith the candidate by sta ff w rite r Margaret Morris who described Mr-s. Weiss as “ a 5-foot-3, iron willed," campaigner.

The Tribune reported Mrs. Weiss’ view that “The Kremlin’s repudiation of Stalin in Soviet Russia is a sign Russia’s leaders are feeling the pressure of an embryo political revolution.”

RADIO INTERVIEWThe Socialist Workers nominee

was also interviewed by Jim Borman fo r has popular radio ■program “ Editorial Roundup.” This was a recorded interview Which wall be broadcast on one oi

-the coming .Sunday n-oon presenta­tions over WiGCO.

Mrs. Weiss’ picture was al shown yesterday on WTCN-TV’s- Paul Severaid newscast which reported tha t the SWP vice- presidentiial candidate was in the Twin- Cities and would speak at a public forum that n ight on “ A New Stage in -the Russian Revolu­tion : Its Significance fo r Amer­ican Labor.”

The meeting that night at party campaign headquarters, which was unusually well attended, heard Mrs. Weiss describe the recent Soviet developments as a “ vindication of the th irty year

MYRA TANNER WEISS

struggle of the Trotskyist move­ment.”PRESS REPORTS SPEECH

The Trotskyists waged this struggle against Stalinism she said, while at the same time “defending the gains made by the Russian w orkers. and the planned economy of -the Soviet Union.” Salient points of the speech were reported in both the Minneapolis and St. Paul press.

On June 6 Mrs. Weiss addressed the political aaim of the Min­neapolis AEL, the Committee of Political Equality. The Central point of her Speech was the need fo r labor to form its own party as the next necessary step in the solution of its problem. She was heat'd attentively and was ap­plauded at the conclusion of her remarks.

- - - Policies of NAACP(Continued from page 1)

grega-tion and a ll civil rights legislation. On every fron t the Negro struggle runs into political barriers — in Congress (where no civil rights Laws have been passed in 80 years), in the White House where Eisenhower refuses to use federal powers against the lynchings in Mississippi, to enforce school desegregation or even- to call a conference on civil rights. In the Southern states where legislatures, governors and judges harass and even, outlaw the NAACP.

Both Republicans and Demo­crats are even cutting down on campaign promises — worthless as everybody knpws these are — on civil rights. Typical was the answer given to New Orleans reporters recently by Adlai Stevenson, the leading Demo­cratic contender. Asked what his stand on civil nights would be i f he were nominated, Stevenson', who has already won the endorse­ment of such rabid racists as Herman Talmadge, replied: “ The platform w ill be drafted by the resolutions committee and not by me. I don’t know i f I w ill have any recommendations.” ( N e w Orleans Times-Picayune, May 29).

The administration is equally pleasing to the white-supremac sts. They especially admire Eisen­hower’s stand that civil rights are state not federal problems. As the Christian Science Monitor (June 9) points out: “ I t is clear, South­erners think, that the president favors leaving state matters to states, that he believes rn strong local government.” I t is on this states’ rights line that the ad­ministration is aiding the current Dixiecrats attack upon the Su­preme Court. Further evidence for the racists is the building of lily-white Republican state ma­chines in the Deep South.

When the unspeakable Senator Eastland counts his blessings, he lists in his Democratic column such items as chairmanship of the powerful Senate Judiciary

Committee and in his Republican Column the juicy patronage plums from the White House.PLOWING BARREN GROUND

Despite the repeated failure of any civil rights yield from either Big Businss party, the NAACP leaders lim it themselves to plow ing this barren ground.

Technically the NAACP does not engage in politics. Its statutes forbid endorsing candidates. In fact, the weight of the organiza tron has been thrown behind the Democrats in past elections by statements of. its leaders. But i t is not merely a question of putting the NAACP officially and fu lly into politics but into politics- that pay o ff in civil right».

■ The Negro leaders are divided today on whether to support the Democrats or the Republicans- Both sides have excellent ar­guments fo r not supporting the other party; neither has a good argument fo r supporting either

I t is time to break out of this vicious Republican - Demo­cratic cycle. What 5s needed is a new -party of the Negro people, labor and the poor farmers, a party without :any ties to the Southern Bourbons or Big Busi­ness. A .party,, tha t in office, would pass and enforce civil rights la-vys.

Such a Labor Party would break the super-imposed “ unity” of the Southern whites by attracting white Southern factory workers and farmers, among whom the sp irit of Populism still bums. The building of a Labor Party in the South would go hand in hand w ith organizing unions-, thus uniting white and Negro workers economically as- well as politically.

Can the Negro people be the initiating force in a movement which w ill change the whole po­litical scene in America? Yes! This convention can pass resolu­tions calling on the labor move­ment to join the NAACP in the building o f a Labor Party. The labor bureaucrats, like the

NAACP leaders, are deeply1 in­volved in the Democratic-Repub lican shell game and w ill resist. But the rank and file of the unions, like the rank and file of the Negro people, know that th t political line of their organiza­tions is bringing no results.

There are a million Negro woikers in the unions. Given a lead they could become crusaders for independent political action. In addition to their own great strength they can win over m il­lions of White workers to begin- the movement fo r a Labor Party.

For those delegates who think the proposed path is too ambitious and too risky, we prescribe a litt le o f fee boldness and vision shown by the people of Mont­gomery six months ago. They have already achieved what doubters claimed was impossible.

And in November as a protest against both Democrats and Republicans, and as a step to­ward building the much-needed new party, ballots should be marked fo r Farrell -Dobbs and Myra Weiss, the presidential candidates of the Socialist Work­ers Party, which stands four­square fo r building a Labor Party.

INTER - RACIAL RESORTChildrens Camp Opens July 6

•70 Miles from New York

•Accommodations in private

cabins or modern lodge.•

Send for Free Circular Mountain Spring Camp

RD No. 1 Washington, N. J.

Telephone: Murray 9-1352

. . . American CP Rocked(Continued from page 1)

what the OP leader's seek at all costs to prevent, fo r i t w ill ex­pose them as accomplices in Stalin’s betrayial of Leninist politics in the Soviet Union and throughout the world. A ll the other crimes advertised by Khrushchev flow from that cen­tra l crime. Max Weiss, in his national commitee report, speak­ing on the tremendous waste of Soviet manpower occasioned by Stalin’s conduct of World War II, states, “ I t is not yet possible fo r us to draw all the conclusions fro-m this mistake, fo r these would include the political conceptions which made i t possible.”

To preclude the membership ex­ploring the “ political conceptions” on their own, Weiss recomaneds that the discussion in the U.S CP on the 20th Congress be steer­ed away from the Stalin cult. “ Questions dealing w ith the mistakes made by the GPSU. ‘he complains,” began completely to obscure the historic significance of the 20th Congress in respect to . . . the fight fo r peaceful coexistence, the new theoretical questions. . . etc. “ We propose therefore to end this situation b\ issuing material to guide th< discussion on the basis of a col leotive evaluation by the Nationa Committee.”

And in truth, leaving unanswer­ed all the questions of the Stalin cult which had correctly preoc­cupied the minds of the CP mem­bers, the Stalinist leaders, with Max Weiss in- the van, began diverting the discussion onto th< so-called “ theoretical questions.’ These included such topics < debate aa whether civ il liberties would be granted by a Socialist America to former capitalists.

The publication of the Khrush­chev speech again puts the Stalir issue fron t and center. There i belongs and ought to remain wthil the discussion reviews the who]' course of the Soviet Union an< Communist Pasties outside the USSR during the Hast 32 year« and draws the necessary political conclusions. Only On the basis of such a discussion is a genuine so­cialist regro.upment possible. Fo- this CP members should be pro­vided w ith all Trotskyist docu­ments. For the history of the la-si 30 years is not only that of Stal­inist crimes but of Trotskyist struggle fo r the authentic Bol­shevik program.

BACK TO 1924Khrushchev, himself could n-~

touch on the question of why hi and his associates did not bloc) Stalin’s crimes Without going back to 1924, “ We were in poli

tical agreement with Stalin from the time of Lenin’s death,” he says in effeot. “ We” joined w ith him in the fight against the Left Opposition led by Trotsky. (Of course, Khrushchev continues to slander the Trotskyists and fa l­sifies the Struggle as one con­ducted by Stalin w ith ideological weapons rather than mde, dis­loyal, bureaucratic means and police measures, as was actually the case.)

The distinctive ‘‘theory” of the Stalinist gang from 1924 on was “ socialism in one coiumltry.” This anti-Leninist slogan dlid not mean indiustrial 'build-up and collec­tivization. On the contrary, Tmt- sky and the Le ft Opposition were hounded as “ super-industrializ- ers” for advocating a five-year plan of industrial development. “ Socialism in one country” meant fattening up thè bureaucratic caste at home, crushing the work­ers’ democracy of Lenin's time, and using the CP’s abroad merely for pressure and bargaining pur­poses in order to arrive at status- quo deals with imperialism. That is also whalt “ peaceful co­existence” means today.

To these ends, Stalinist forma­tions arose in every CP, composed of pecond-rate careerists and disoriented elements. A ll opposi­tion was ruthlessly expelled. The Trotskyists were slandered, os­tracized and made targets, of goon-squad attacks. A number of them were murdered. The CP’s were thus transformed into Stal­inist appendages.

Since its- Stalinization some 28 years ago, the history of the American CP is not one of “devotion to the interests of the American working man.” as claimed by the June Daily Wbrk- vr, although revolutionary minded CP members have earnestly sacrificed to make it such. I t is a sordid record of class-collabora­tion featured today by support for the Democratic Party.

Nor does history permit the slightest confidence -in Khrush­chev and Co.’s intention to restore workers’ democracy in the USSR. The “ gigantic transf.ormarti on” over there has been with the Soviet masses — primarily the working class. They are begin­ning to assert themselves as an independent force. Already their energetic pressure hias forced the Kremlin dictators to dump the Stalin cult and give economic concessions. In the near future they vóli rise up against, the bureaucratic caste in a political revolution that w ill restore Work­ers’ democracy and Lenin’s policy of revolutionary internationalism.